The calls are made by Kate Bould, managing director of bespoke property search firm Index West Midlands, who says the government must act quickly.
Kate says: “The announcement that the Chancellor will use next week’s Budget to announce an extension to the Stamp Duty Land Tax holiday until June is exactly what the residential property sector needs right now.
“Ending it on the 31 March as was originally planned would have been catastrophic for the sector, threatened the completion of around 60,000 property sales caught up in the residential property log-jam and given thousands of people an unexpected bill for Stamp Duty.
“However, such a positive signal of government support must be a first step. The Chancellor should use the SDLT announcement as the turning point for the residential property sector and commit to a long-overdue overhaul of the UK’s antiquated and outdated house buying process.
“Such a review should include a study of the house buying and search models in other countries, which are much more relevant to today’s digital-first world, are paperless and benefit from the latest developments in technology."
The Chancellor’s stamp duty land tax holiday means all homebuyers in England and Northern Ireland buying homes valued at up to £500,000 don't pay any stamp duty on the purchase. The SDLT holiday was the subject of a Parliamentary debate in February, led by Elliot Colburn MP, a member of the Petitions Committee, and Jesse Norman MP, Financial Secretary to the Treasury.
Last month, a poll carried out by Index Property Information revealed that around 56% of conveyancers want the extension to the Stamp Duty holiday.
Around 1000 professionals took part in the poll, which also revealed that a quarter of conveyancers want a gradual reintroduction of SDLT and not an overnight return to the Stamp Duty charges – 14.5% want it reintroduced over two years, and 10.5% want a 12-month reintroduction timescale.
